Racial transformation (individual)

Racial transformation is the process by which someone changes their appearance with respect to race, either from their current race to another race or to a new category. These changes are done through a variety of methods including surgery or chemical treatments. It is similar to passing; however, it requires some attempt a medical procedure, rather than lying about one's race or using makeup.

Attempted full physical transformation is exceedingly rare. Motivations include by racial assimilation or aesthetic reasons.

Related phenomena

See also: Acting white

In the US and Europe, sun tanning is very popular although tanning has shown many times to be very dangerous and harsh to the skin. However, these are distinct from racial transformation. Subcultures of one race may adopt mannerisms from culture associated with another race, as with "wiggers", white people who emulate African-American cultural styling, particularly hip-hop culture.

Skin whitening, often with harsh and potentially dangerous bleaches, is common in some parts of the world particularly in China, and some parts in Asia, Africa and Jamaica. Skin whitening and hair coloring or straightening may be seen as trying to become white/European. In many cultures such as in Asia's many cultures lighter skin was seen as someone of wealth and who did not have to work in the fields and was also a sign of beauty. Skin lightening had taken place in Asia and various places before the slavery in the U.S.A. and the Americas.

Tanning controversy

Further information: Sun tanning

Some consider tanning as an attempt to attain an "ethnic" skin color by looking darker. This argument may carry some weight seeing how popular Spray on Tans are. The main issue is about some southern European countries with warm climates such as Italy, Portugal and Spain (particularly the southern regions of these countries), where some people have olive skin complexions (although not all of them, only in the southern parts of these countries). The same can be said of white Latin Americans who live in warm climates who primarily descend from these groups: interestingly, despite being thought of as white, their skin complexions are viewed as the ideal skin tone goal of tanning for white people who wish to get a tan. However, whites that both tan and surgically add non-white features could be seen as transracials. Furthermore, it is not known if these olive colored whites are trying to look "ethnic" when they tan, as they're the darkest of those considered white in the Caucasian race so they may be trying to look like another race.

However, some argue that tanning is a natural skin process, especially for European peoples in summer, unlike skin bleaching. Though many whites obsessively abuse this to the point of getting sunburns, wrinkles, leathery skin, and even many kinds of skin cancers (including Melanoma) while well aware of the adverse health effects of doing so just to get darker. Some even allow their young children to overexpose themselves to UV radiation. On the other hand, it is not widely promoted as fashionable all year long (for health reasons mainly), whereas skin bleaching which can be noticed in many magazines and media, regardless of the season. We can think, for instance, of the l'Oreal ad controversy, featuring the singer Beyoncé, who looked strangely paler than her normal skin tone. Though this is trivial when compared to the amount of overly tanned white men and women in many magazines in the West.

Plastic surgery

Some plastic surgery procedures, such as Asian blepharoplasty, a surgical process designed to create an upper eyelid crease in people of East Asian descent, or rhinoplasty to change the appearance of an "ethnic" nose, can also be seen in a racial context. Lip augmentation (lip collagen and lip implants) is a very popular surgical procedure choice of white women, this surgical procedure enlarges the patients lips to a fuller lip size, changing their lips from Caucasian to African American.

Race choice and transformation in pop culture

Fictional studies of race choice and transformation have often occurred in drama and literature and especially in works of science fiction. In Greg Bear's books Eon and Eternity, new human consciousness is created in a virtual realm and the parents choose the race of their children when it is time for them to be 'birthed' into the real physical world. In this work as well, many humans do not conform to the standard human shape and choose a variety of form and sizes in which to exist both in the physical world and in the virtually.

In an episode of the animated TV show South Park, Kyle tries out for the basketball team, but is not very good. Wanting to be better, he goes to a plastic surgeon and asks if there is a surgery to make him tall and black. The doctor recommends a "negroplasty" for Kyle. The surgery is done, but Kyle's knees break during the basketball game. The doctor decides to revert him back to his normal white self, for a "small fee".

In another example, the movie Soul Man from 1986 involved race transformation of a white applicant to Harvard Law School. Unable to pay for tuition, the main character received a scholarship under the pretense of being black.

The cast of the MTV reality TV show Jersey shore openly voice their preference for having darker skin/ tanning. They openly discuss their dislike of having light/ pale skin, so they tan themselves to a more ethnic skin color. They happen to be "Italian" or portraying the state's large Italian American community, although most of the staff are not of Italian descent.

See also

References